When I talk of you as a girl
I do not mean it in a mean way
Like how some corporate chauvinist
Might use the term with an automatic sneer.
I use the word full of gentleness.
To me you are the girl; sweet, young,
Full of beauty. Woman, too, but
You should not loathe the girl inside you.
The girl is mother to the woman
And a daughter should not hate her mother.